Class Acts
FE&S’ fifth annual Best in Class survey shines the industry spotlight on those manufacturers that subscribing dealers, consultants and broadliners named the ones that help them best meet customer needs.

By the Editors

To get their foot in the door with any dealer, broadliner or consultant, manufacturers need to offer quality products that are priced correctly. To cultivate and maintain a long-term relationship with their distribution partners, though, a manufacturer must do much more. Those manufacturers that go beyond the call by being flexible and responsive when it comes to service, support and anything else that adds value for the end-user earn that coveted preferred status from their individual distribution partners.

Achieving an elite level of trust with even one dealer, broadliner or consultant is no small feat. But when a manufacturer gains the widespread respect from FE&S’ subscribing dealers, broadliners and consultants who participated in our fifth annual study, that company has truly become Best in Class.

FE&S’ Best in Class survey polls a sample of dealers, broadliners and consultants from the magazine’s circulation file to determine who they perceive to be the best manufacturer for a series of key foodservice E&S categories. This year, the survey includes more data than ever (1,000 interviews total), including 425 dealer respondents, 325 broadliner respondents and 250 consultant respondents.

In addition to expanding the number of professionals surveyed, the other significant change in this year’s study was made to the Overall Best in Class designation. The best way to determine whether a company truly is Best in Class is by making like-for-like comparisons with their competitors in that industry segment. For that reason, FE&S now offers an Overall Best in Class Award in four categories: Heavy Equipment, Light Equipment, Smallwares and Tabletop. This table, previously labeled “All Respondents,” provides a clearer result.

Without any further adieu, we present the results from FE&S’ 2005 Best in Class study.